The evolution of phenotypic variation in replicated ecological landscapes

复制生态景观中表型变异的演变

• 批准号: 116922-2006
• 负责人: Reimchen, Thomas
• 金额: $ 1.94万
• 依托单位: University of Victoria
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2008-01-01 至 2009-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=391089
• 关键词: evolution; phenotypic; variation; replicated; ecological

My research program focuses on studying evolutionary processes influencing morphological and genetical variation within and among populations. The majority of this research occurs on Haida Gwaii and adjacent archipelago and is directed at studies of the 125 lake populations of threespine stickleback which exhibit a remarkable variability in body form. This proposal develops 5 separate MSc projects. (1) understanding the ancestry and relatedness of the highly atypical Giant Stickleback found in six disjunct lakes using genetic markers (2) investigating whether the frequent morphological asymmetries in the defense armour observed in these stickleback populations are associated with lateralized (asymmetric) behaviors, as has been recently reported in other fishes such as guppies which prefer to view threatening stimuli with their left eye but benign stimuli with their right eye. (3) investigating an experimental population of armored stickleback that was established in 1992 in a pond without predatory fish or predatory birds and test the hypothesis that macroinvertebrate piscivores are a selective pressure that leads to armor loss, (4) examining whether there has been evolution of behavioral differences (foraging, defense) between the experimental and ancestral populations and (5) analyzing stable isotope signatures of muscle tissues of stickleback collected from Boulton Lake, Haida Gwaii over the last 30 years to test whether different defense phenotypes occupy different niches. Carbon and stable isotopes provide a time-integrated signature of an individual's niche including habitat and diet. Evidence for a coupling between defense phenotype and isotopic signature would be a very exciting as it would provide an ecological context to morphological variability within populations. This represents one of the major areas of ambiguity and discussion in the evolutionary literature and consequently, this project could be of considerable impact.

我的研究计划侧重于研究影响种群内和种群间形态和遗传变异的进化过程。这项研究的大部分发生在海达Geslas和邻近的群岛，并针对125个湖泊种群的threespine刺鱼表现出显着的变化，在身体形态的研究。该提案开发了5个独立的MSC项目。(1)使用遗传标记了解在六个间断湖泊中发现的高度非典型的巨棘鱼的祖先和亲缘关系（2）调查在这些棘鱼种群中观察到的防御盔甲中频繁的形态不对称是否与偏侧化有关（不对称）行为，如最近在其它鱼类如孔雀鱼中报道的，孔雀鱼喜欢用左眼观看威胁性刺激，而用右眼观看良性刺激眼睛(3)调查了1992年在没有捕食性鱼类或捕食性鸟类的池塘中建立的甲棘鱼实验种群，并验证了大型无脊椎动物是导致甲棘鱼损失的选择性压力的假设，（4）检查是否存在行为差异的进化（5）分析从博尔顿湖采集的棘鱼肌肉组织的稳定同位素特征，海大Gynthia在过去30年来测试是否不同的防御表型占据不同的生态位。碳和稳定同位素提供了一个时间整合的个人的生态位，包括栖息地和饮食的签名。防御表型和同位素标记之间的耦合的证据将是一个非常令人兴奋的，因为它将提供一个生态环境中的形态变异种群。这是进化论文献中模糊和讨论的主要领域之一，因此，这个项目可能会产生相当大的影响。